Month: February 2013

Fowey, Cornwall – Day 2 (Part 2/3): Afternoon Tea in Brown Sugar

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Day 2 continues…

Miss Pinky has wanted to have afternoon tea for a very long time. But our busy schedules and busy lives mean no-can-do, and trying to find a place that was cheap in London is very difficult.

But finally. Finally. We found a small shop called Brown Sugar in Fowey that did afternoon tea for £4.75. But the only available items were scones with jam and clotted cream plus a pot of tea and milk.
Brown Sugar, Fowey

The menu – probably can’t read it in this picture!
The jam was sweet and the clotted cream was thick. I loved it! The scones were warm and easy to cut, unlike the ones you get in supermarkets which are of course stone cold and hard as rock.
Tea, scones and jam ^_^

My tasty scone of sweet jam and clotted cream! ^_^
I enjoyed my scones, and I like the tea. The scones fell apart too easily though… but it was not a problem!

Miss Pinky doesn’t seem to like sweet jam, and realised afternoon tea is just like being at home with a cuppa… I think she is now discovering herself and deciding what she likes and dislikes…

Total price was £9.50. So worth it!

My geeky rating: 4.9/5… sadly couldn’t order sandwiches at the time we were there. It would have been an even better afternoon tea! 😦

Good points:
– Loads of jam
– Loads of clotted cream
– Warm scones
– Good price!

Bad points:
– Was not able to order other food 😦

Address: 2 South Street, Town Centre, Fowey PL23 1AR


Fowey, Cornwall – Day 2 (Part 1/3): The Eden Project

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So Day 2 blog post will be in three parts as we seem to have done a lot! ^^

We started the day quite early. There were a lot of birds singing and gulls hawking and boats sailing around already that morning! ^^

I have wanted to go to the Eden Project for a very long time, well ever since Mr Games mentioned it to me a while back when he wanted to go (that’s why I invited him because he hasn’t been yet!).

As we didn’t know our way around that much we asked the bus driver in how to get to The Eden Project. (The bus drivers in Fowey are really nice people). The driver advised us that we could get a day pass ticket for £8.50 each, and we could use that ticket on any Western Greyhound bus service. We could even go to Exeter with it, but that would take us 4 hours to get there… No chance of that ever happening… Hahahah. The day pass lasts up until midnight. So we took the 524 to St Austell. Stopped off at the cinema bus stop, crossed over and took the 527 which then took us all the way to the Eden Project. So in total, it took us almost 2 hours to get there by bus, as it was taking us around everywhere!! Bummer. I think we could have got there sooner if we traveled by car, but it was not to be!

Well the good reason why we went by bus is because we were able to obtain a discount at The Eden Project… So if you travel by bus or train make sure you show your ticket to the ticket seller, and they will reduce the price for you…
Map of The Eden Project

Wow!! It was amazing going there! Felt like being in space…
Miss Pinky and I were so happy. Miss Pinky never ever takes pictures. But she has started to before we go on our bigger holiday in April.

Here’s my pictures…
Giant bee statue

The Canteen

So much food ^^
Once we went into the Rainforest Biome my glasses all steamed up, even Miss Pinky couldn’t see through hers! It was like being in Hong Kong all over again… Oh how I love that type of heat. I felt like I was in a sauna just sweating everything off (don’t worry I was not sweating!). I wondered why they were selling ice cream outside in this cold weather. Heheheheh
Steamy in the Rainforest Biome!

Rice paddy field 😀



Cute!
We then went into the Mediterranean Biome. Awww. It was cooler in there. Easy to take pictures too! 😀
In the Mediterranean Biome

Scary statues!

Amazing!

Olives anyone?

We went back outside and then explored around before we got to the next area!
Cows sitting on the rooftop XD

The Ice Rink

Shaun The Sheep!
The Core was the final section of the project. It isn’t a greenhouse but shows more of the sciences of plants… Botanics…
Outside The Core

Giant Seed!!!! Hard to take a pic of this!

Inside The Core
It was amazing coming to the Eden Project, and a great use of land!

When we were coming back we sat at the bus stop for a good 15-20 minutes. As we sat this pretty, pretty robin came up to us (probably wanting food), but it kept hopping about, and it let me take a picture of it! Wow. This is the first time I got close to a robin! ^_^
Cute little robin ^^
I want to go back now!!


Fowey, Cornwall – Day 1: The trip starts!

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Arrgh! Needed to get away from London for a bit. And I finally found an opportunity to get away from the stresses of life and work and my busy social life. ^_^ A colleague at work had rented a place in Fowey (pronounced as Foy) in Cornwall and there was still time for her friends and colleagues (like me (^_^)v) to use it. I was so happy I contacted Miss Pinky first to ask if she wanted to take up the offer. Yep. She said yes we’re going! Book the travelling tickets now! I even asked Mr Games and Mr Sensible to come with us… but timing and their busy lives was all wrong. 😦

So in the end I booked a National Express coach from London Victoria to St Blazey. (I wanted to get the train, but Miss Pinky wanted to save money… humph). So our trip started off ok. Our coach driver was ok but a bit frustrated that people were boarding with hot food. ‘Any food that is hot is classified as HOT FOOD’ he said. Heheh. We had a few stops before getting to Fowey…

So our first main stop was West Buckland. It’s a small area for people travelling by coach and car and truck to stop at… I think for those who work there must be able to drive!
West Buckland Pit Stop!

Costa Express machine – woooow!!!

Our next stop was in Plymouth. Haven’t been to Plymouth for a number of years now. 🙂
Was inside the coach and took a pic of a church spire in Plymouth ^_^

Coach stop!
Then finally we got to our final stop St Blazey before getting another local bus to Fowey. 
St Blazey Stop – Polgrean Place!
Unfortunately, we with missed the local bus or it probably never came! So we stood outside the bus stop frozen to death for almost an hour… We were waiting and waiting before we said we should book a cab from a cab service my colleague uses! But the bus came in the end… It was late! 😛 Single fare is £4! OMG. That’s expensive compared to London. It was a scary bus ride. We couldn’t see anything along the roads. There were no street lamps either. :S

When we finally got to Fowey, we almost got lost with the place we were staying at. It was also very, very dark to take any pictures… We were hungry and a bit tired… Miss Pinky is really lazy and never cooks when I’m with her (or maybe I find her cooking not up to my standards ¬_¬””)…

Bibimbap Soho 비빔밥 소호 – London Greek Street

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I really only wanted to blog for fun. I believe I am not a super blogger. But now I truly know why people like to blog (especially about food)! ^_^ …

I really like Korean food. Since my experience at Arirang last year I really wanted to try out more Korean restaurants. I kept seeing them but I found myself not going into them because I had no one to go in them with me. 😦 I found Bibimbap Soho 비빔밥 소호 on the Internet a while ago (and way before I was emailed by a kind person from Bibimbap Soho XD). 

Outside Bibimbap Soho

I’m surprised they don’t use their Korean name outside of their restaurant, but it’s modern age, so thumbs up (^_^)b for keeping up with the times! At the time I was just searching for a cheapish Korean restaurant to go to. There have been mixed reviews from a lot of people in London, Koreans and non-Koreans about this place. I suggested to my friend Mr Bear a while ago to go with me… and we were supposed to go here for his birthday in September 2012, but he is such a busy social bear!!! And now it’s February 2013!!! So hurry up Mr Bear, find us a time and date for us to go! And don’t forget to bring along Mr Smiles!! 😀

Bibimbap 비빔밥 (pronounced: pi-pim-pap) is a national Korean dish which means ‘mixed rice’ according to Wikipedia and on Bibimbap Soho’s website. ^_^ In this dish is a mixture of egg (raw or cooked), meat (mainly beef), vegetables and the most obvious ingredient white rice, which is served in a warm bowl! (More like a very hot stone bowl!).  The ingredients are mixed in the bowl and cooked at the same time. Bibimbap Soho offers 10 varieties of this dish, and I couldn’t wait to try one of these out. 😀 But as well as the national dish they serve other food, like noodles, salads and rice dishes…

Had to take a picture of Girls Generation ^_^

Bibimbap menu
When we arrived I had thought a table was reserved for us. But unfortunately it wasn’t. To make a reservation there must be a group of 10 or more people. However the staff were very polite and accommodating, which I am extremely grateful for, as they sat us at a table that was suitable for 2 people (but with an extra chair of course)… All we wanted to do was sit and EAT! (I only had 3 pancakes and some cookies for lunch 😦 …). 

This is a very modern Korean restaurant. It has a lot of photos surrounding the walls. Unfortunately we didn’t have our picture taken… I guess it was because it was too busy, there was a long queue of people and service was running more smoothly than usual… Keep guessing geek… 😛
Inside Bibimbap Soho… Couldn’t get a better picture… 😦

Here’s what we had…


Drinks first
I had the ice lemon tea, Mr Bear had a hot root tea and Mr Smiles had a coke. 

Coke, ice lemon tea and hot root tea

Side dishes
Mr Smiles started off with the Chilli Squid. It was very crispy, and the dip that came with it was very tasty! I like! Mr Smiles really liked his starter too!! 😀

Chilli Squid

The dip is very nice!! Mr Bear said he could have it with anything! ¬_¬”

I had the spicy rice cake a.k.a ddukbokki. Oh wooooow!! This was soooo tasty! Next time I make ddukbokki I want it to be as tasty as this!! 😀

Yummy Spicy Rice Cake ^_^

Mr Bear had the kimchi pancake. Now, when I made kimchi chigae one time and brought it to the office it really smelled and I had put him off kimchi… Luckily, these didn’t smell that bad and were very, very yummy 😀 Mr Bear said he LOVED them AND wanted MORE!! ^_^

Kimchi Pancake – Thumbs up from Mr Bear!!! ^_^

Pickles
Both Mr Smiles and I ordered the kimchi. I’ve had several types of kimchi before. The tinned one which is my favourite, the chilled one in a jar is very tasty and my least favourite the refrigerated packet version shipped from Korea. This one tasted like the refrigerated packet. 😦 It has this bitter taste that I don’t particularly like. But for some reason Mr Bear and Mr Smiles enjoyed it!

Kimchi

The Bibimbap!!!
The moment finally came. The three of us ordered three different bibimbaps. Mr Smiles had the Dol Sot with a fried egg. Very light in taste, and nutritious looking. Yummy!

Dol Sot

Mr Bear had the Beef Bul-go-gi with a raw egg. This was great, well the beef was! The beef tasted like it would melt away in your mouth.

Beef Bul-go-gi

And I had the Beef Fillet. I have never eaten raw beef before. But it tasted so good. I think I could sense there was some sesame oil. And the mushrooms were so tasty. ^_^

Beef Fillet – tasty ^_^

Beef Fillet all mixed up and ready to cook in the bowl!

All three bibimbap dishes ^_^ …. tasty….! The sauces were tasty too! 😀

All in all, it was a good meal. I think I wanted more of the side dishes than anything else! By the way, they don’t serve desserts (probably because of customer turnover as Mr Bear pointed out), but there is a coffee shop opposite called Lick that serves ice cream… although it’s very expensive ice cream!


Total cost came to £54.20 (and fortunately we got a £10.40 discount, as I was told I would be able to have 2 free side dishes, but we still gave them a small tip even though there was a £5 service charge… Korean restaurants seem to like charging their customers a lot!)…

I think Miss Pinky is going to be jealous… I did invite her, but only if Mr Bear didn’t want to go. She wasn’t happy that she was second choice over Mr Bear! Hah! Next time Miss Pinky, next time. 😉

I can say that Mr Bear and Mr Smiles were very happy with what they had! I felt like I have introduced them to Korean food of which they have never had before. ^_^ I am such a proud geek.

As we were leaving more people were coming in… 
I would definitely come here again but probably when it’s more quiet.

감사합니다

My geeky rating: 4.9/5 (lost a 0.1 mark because of the reserving issue)

Good points:
– Love, love, loved the side dishes. I want more dduboki! ^_^ Mr Bear wants more kimchi pancake! Mr Smiles loves the kimchi 🙂
– Friendly and polite service (even when rushed and had a busy service)
– Love the pictures on the walls
– Enjoyed the bibimbap

Bad points:
– Didn’t have a reserved table
– Service charge of £5 (that’s too much)
– Not entirely cheap but worthwhile

Address: 11 Greek Street, London W1D 4DJ
Telephone: 0207 287 3434


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The Lindt Big Egg Hunt continues…

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It’s EGGXHAUSTING trying to find  eggs! Covent Garden seems like a tiny area in the central part of London, but it isn’t really.

I tried to find the missing ones I missed out on Tuesday. I found 15 of them yesterday. I was so happy, but so tired after walking around back and forth and circling around some streets twice…
15 Eggs that I didn’t see on Tuesday ^_^
I also found Eggbert! I’m sure it’s ok to say where he was now. The clues given out were quite simple… Jeans store… GAP or Levi?… He was in GAP (the adult store not the baby one, which is where I went into first ¬,¬). 
Eggbert in GAP
When I got back home. I realised I had some of the ones that I thought I had missing. Clumsy me! I have them, and I was just missing 5 more…

I knew where two were after extensive searching of people’s pictures on Instagram and other clues… So I went back the next day… That’s TODAY!

Oh my… When I went back today I realised I already had this one… So I had 4 missing not 5!! *SIGH*
I had this one already!! ¬_¬”
This one was quite easy to find… Thanks to Instagram pictures 😀
I didn’t see this one yesterday or on Tuesday… so lucky to have found it!
Found this one in the basement in Link (thanks to the clues I read yesterday)… Very hidden!
Very hard to find!!
This one I didn’t see because the shop window is so dark! Very difficult to see (thanks to the Volunteer and a tourist who was also looking for the eggs especially for Lot 25, which I pointed out to him that it was in a shoe shop!).
Practically invisible!
Before I found the last one I had missing I was listening to this Chinese guy playing some music… Cool stuff!
Chinese guy playing some music 😀
And finally my very last one! There was actually a different egg in that very same spot on Tuesday. There was a big crowd yesterday so I didn’t see it!!
My last egg… Finally
I even got my book stamped 😀

Yay, so I have officially beaten my friend Miss Goldilocks after 3 days in 2 and a half hours. Wahahahahahaha!!!!!! ^_^ Not bad!

The eggs are going to be in these cities in the next few weeks…

Birmingham 19th February – 25th February
Liverpool 27th February – 5th March
Manchester 7th March – 13th March
Glasgow 15th March – 20th March 
London Covent Garden 22nd March – 1st April

Follow @BigEggHuntUK on Twitter and / or Facebook!! 😀

Website: http://thebigegghunt.co.uk/

Valentine’s Day Comics 2013 （*＾3＾）

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Ah, another Valentines Day. And since I had nothing much to do, I thought I would draw two chibi comics (since I haven’t done one in ages… lie I did one for Chinese New Year ¬_¬””). One is in Mandarin and the other is in Cantonese (with English translation of course). 

This is for all the people out there without a loved one today… Heheh….

The Mandarin Comic (I think I mixed up my Traditional and Simplified characters in this one… Whoopsie!)…


The Cantonese Comic


Hope you all have a beautiful Valentine’s Day whatever the weather may be like today!!（*＾3＾）

The Lindt Big Egg Hunt UK 2013 (Fabergé egg hunt)

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Fabergé eggs are back in town! My friend who I will call Miss Goldilocks alerted me about this event last week and we had decided to have a competition on who could find the most. This year there’s 101 eggs plus an extra 4 1, and not only will they start off in London, but they’ll be going through a big UK tour which will run up until Easter! (Dublin seems to be holding there own egg hunt too!) 

This time the eggs are in co-operation with Lindt, the Swiss chocolate maker plus Metro, and it’s again in aid for Action for Children. XD Yay! There’s also a Lindt chocolate prize at the end (I believe it’s a whole year of Lindt chocolate!! Not sure what the conditions are though… Haven’t read that part yet ¬_¬”). There’s also a new mascot named Eggbert (he’s the new Where’s Wally!) which will be out and about and moved around a lot! 

Lucky I had the day off yesterday ^_^  but I was too lazy to go to the launch… I started my journey from 9 am, and I didn’t care if it rained, snowed or if a blizzard was on its way, I was still going to find some eggs. 😀

I got to Covent Garden at 9.40-ish (boo to morning traffic) and went in via Southampton Way. The first thing I saw was a big Lindt Bunny at the side and thought it was an egg. Nope it’s not! Then I saw a lot of eggs!! 

Lindt Bunny – not an egg!

The first lot of eggs on show


In this post I have put the eggs into collages of the areas that they were in… I am a bit too lazy to name them all, but you can find all the names and artists here…

In the South Piazza

In South Hall and East Piazza

At West Piazza

Central Avenue

North Hall
North Piazza

One of the designers / artists was also there. I felt it was like deja vu because I saw a designer / artist last year!

Artist Anna Barlow with her egg ‘Anticipation of a Thousand Moments’

Here’s a camera crew filming away at us egg hunters, well it’s only fair that I took a pic of them too!! ¬_¬

A camera crew that was around

Now. Here’s the Giant Lindt Bunny with loads of tiny Lindt bunny chocolates. Amazing. I want them all!!

Woooow!!!! Big Lindt Bunny!!!!

After this section I took a break and went into Artbox to get myself a nanoblock, which I will blog about another time. I then went around Covent Garden to see if there were any eggs around plus I was Instagramming at the same time. No such luck in finding more, until I went through an alleyway and found the store that the eggs were being held captive in!! ^_^ Quick snap and tweet it to the world which I did a little later…!  

I spotted this egg ‘This is Not an Egg’ before I realised that the rest of the eggs were inside this place!!!

The hidden shop of eggs… I think the people there thought I was going 
to follow them around! No way. I was there to egg hunt 😛

Afterwards, I went back to the centre, bought myself a map which came with a Lindt chocolate bunny and a pen, all costing £3. I then went around Covent Garden again! But I stopped off at EAT and had a coffee (this is where I did some tweeting). Then about 20 minutes later, I went into the same alleyway and found 3 more eggs and the original version of one of them that was at the North Piazza (so confusing!)…

It’s up to you to find these ones!! ^_^

In total I found 83 eggs. So I’m missing 18 eggs plus the extra 4 1… But it looks like I won against Miss Goldilocks, the others were just hidden away in the shop, and I couldn’t take a picture of them all ¬_¬! Buuut I think she’ll find the ones that I didn’t get to see yesterday. Maybe I should go out egg hunting during the weekend to find the rest. 😀

I haven’t seen Eggbert yet as well, it’s being released today – as I was told yesterday on Twitter! But too bad I’m working today… 😦

This is where the eggs are going to be this year…

London Covent Garden 12th February – 17th February
Birmingham 19th February – 25th February
Liverpool 27th February – 5th March
Manchester 7th March – 13th March
Glasgow 15th March – 20th March 
London Covent Garden 22nd March – 1st April

Follow @BigEggHuntUK on Twitter and / or Facebook!! 😀

Website: http://thebigegghunt.co.uk/

Happy Lindt Fabergé Egg Hunting!!! ^_^

Check out my posts from last year… I’m still quite disappointed that I didn’t get to see the Chapman Brothers’ egg… Was there one at all???
2012/04/03 Fabergé egg hunt – The Eggstravaganza
2012/04/01 Fabergé egg hunt – The Final Saturday Hunt!

p.s. Forgot to mention earlier that my favourite egg is ‘Egg Disguised as Pineapple’ (^_^)v

Update 17/02/2013 – My second and third day of hunting…
http://asimplegeekylife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-lindt-big-egg-hunt-continues.html

Golden Pagoda 金滿樓 – London China Town

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Another adventure into a Chinese Restaurant? Yep… Miss Pinky and I just missed the dim sum serving time and it was a 45 minute wait at Golden Dragon on a wet Chinese New Year Day. So we started exploring for food and shops (well, we didn’t go far and beyond as it only lasted for 2 minutes)…

We ended up in this place Golden Pagoda 金滿樓. Miss Pinky is becoming a very fussy person and she doesn’t like to venture into different restaurants unless someone has recommended it, and says this is the place to go. She really wanted dim sum, but we just missed out… (She was not happy! Tough luck :P, she didn’t mention it to me earlier, so we don’t get dim sum! – Mean Geek!). 

Outside Golden Pagoda

At the door waiting outside

So as we were waiting I casually asked a couple of people at the door who were waiting outside with us (it was a 20 minute wait, but we waited for 10 minutes… so lucky!) who I believe has dined at this restaurant before. And they said they’ve been to this place several times, and they always got what they wanted, items could be swapped around etc., etc… So that was good to know! And I was quite pleased to have asked, and Miss Pinky was ok with that! ^_^

Finally inside – New Year’s decorations

As soon as we sat down, and as soon as we opened the menus, Miss Pinky wanted to leave because all the set menus had prawns in it! Well there was one set menu that didn’t. And they don’t do duck noodle soup, that’s if she couldn’t have a set menu… In Cantonese I would say 救命呀 (gau meng ah – save me)! Let’s just stick to this place, I’ve never been in here before!

Free prawn crackers

Thankfully we stayed because it was cold, and we were sat in a corner which meant no one could bother us too much… In the end we ordered the G1 set menu, 2 scallops and Tsing Tao beer!

Tsing Tao Beer

Starters – mixed hor d’ourves – spare ribs are good!

Steamed scallops

Crispy duck and pancakes – the pancakes were lukewarm

The mains…

Pak Choi – this was so-so

Chicken with peppers and onions in black bean sauce – not fantastic but it was ok

Spicy crispy pork – I liked this!!

The G1 set menu was definitely enough for two people!

Total price came to £64.10. A bit expensive… £19.50 for each person, and we did have two beers each, and the scallops were £3.50 each!!


My geeky rating: 4/5 Although the food was good, I would say this place isn’t the best of all in China Town but would definitely try it out again for the dim sum.

Good points:
– Ok service
– Food was filling and tasty but pancakes were warm

Bad points:
– A little bit on the expensive side compared to other Chinese restaurants
– Service was ok, but I could sense they were under pressure, unlike at Golden Dragon the waiter at the door wasn’t
– Didn’t have duck noodle soup on the menu (Miss Pinky – not me)

Address: 15A Gerrard Street, London W1D 6JD
Telephone: 0207 434 2888


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CNY Celebrations in London Trafalgar Square

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Before I start blogging about the food I ate yesterday, here’s a post on yesterday’s Chinese New Year celebrations in Trafalgar Square. 

Miss Pinky and I were only there for about half an hour because it was cold, wet, windy and rainy, the weather conditions of Scotland… and my socks got wet too! 😦 Well as my brother said the other day, it’s the Year of the Snake, and the Chinese say the snake brings water (only if you’re superstitious!).
Stage in Trafalgar Square

I love it when the red lanterns go up! And the entertainment we saw was cool!  Too bad I couldn’t watch all of it…


London is very multicultural place and celebrates a lot of different festivals from around the world, of which I am quite happy about… So here’s some pictures I took earlier of the festivities in Trafalgar Square, and at the end of this post are some short clips I took of the music and dance (sorry for all the umbrellas – they were in the way of all my shots!).

Red Lantern from Casino at the Empire

Musician playing the erhu

年年有餘 Nin Nin Yau Yu – lucky fish to bring you fortune!

The stall seller

Fortune Cats!! ^_^

Some dancers on the big screen

One of the dancers

More dancing!

It’s the year of the snake!! ^_^

Loads of people with their umbrellas – it was freezing! Just like being in Scotland brrrrrr

Trafalgar Square fountain

Side of the stage!

More entertainers!!

The video clips… They aren’t brilliant, but watchable!



Hopefully it won’t rain next year!! 
Did you go? What did you like about it? And will you go again?

Psssst, it’s Chinese New Year ～＞°）mニニニニ＝～

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Once again Happy Chinese New Year or Happy Chinese Lunar Year or Happy Spring Festival…Whatever you want to call it! 新年快樂！恭喜發財！


Before I start heading out later in the afternoon to enjoy myself and hopefully not get drunk etc., here’s a comic by yours truly The Geek (because I haven’t done one in ages)! And it’s in Cantonese with English translation on the comic… 😀 

Note: The comic is actually drawn onto one page, but I’ve split it up here for easy reading purposes! 


Enjoy the celebrations!!